The United Kingdom has pledged to invest over US$385 million in Myanmar in two years time, according to statistics of the Directorate of Investment and Company Registration.
The UK invested... [ More ]
Yet this space is highly contingent on a number of volatile factors: the goodwill of the current President and his associates in Parliament, the ability of Aung San Suu Kyi to assure the... [ More ]
If the 10-nation ASEAN bloc is to double its economy by 2020, then a large thrust of the growth rate will be coming from Myanmar.
According to consultancy McKinsey Global Institute,... [ More ]
Myanmar was one of East Asia’s fast growing advanced economies in the early 20th century. But decades of isolation took its toll and Myanmar was left out of the region’s remarkable... [ More ]
MANDALAY — Despite long-held objections to the project by activists and locals, the Shwe pipeline connecting Burma’s Arakan State to Kunming in southern China began piping natural gas across the Sino-Burmese border on Sunday.
At a commissioning ceremony held at the headquarters of the Southeast Asia Gas Pipeline Company Limited (SEAGP) consortium in Mandalay, Vice President Nyan Tun praised the completion of the controversial pipeline while assuring a “good, collaborative”...
Over a year Business Monitor's last special report on the topic, our latest special report details how Myanmar continues to progress down the long path towards political and economic development, solidifying Business Monitor's feelings that the country's recent awakening is the 'real deal.' While the past year and a half has not been without its pitfalls and unforeseen challenges, Business Monitor note that, more importantly, Myanmar's leadership appears to be dedicated to maintaining the...
The pathway to change in Myanmar has not been a simple one, with riots, religion and reformist ideals clashing openly and often since the process began back in 2011. Yet despite the many bumps in the road, real progress is being made, with the University of Melbourne one of many external organisations helping build capacity in the country formerly known as Burma.
Long-time opposition politician and peace activist Aung San Suu Kyi has frequently described education as one of the keys to the...
British companies will be drafted in by the Burmese government to help kick-start its financial services sector.
Last year, the majority of sanctions were lifted against Burma (now officially called Myanmar) allowing it to trade freely with the rest of the world while opening its economy up to foreign investment.
This saw Western companies clamour to enter Burma, which has a population of 59 million and was a military dictatorship between 1962 and 2011. It was once regarded as one of...
With sanctions against Myanmar lifted, U.S. President Barack Obama is launching a new American charm offensive in that country to vie against the People's Republic of China as chief economic benefactor. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe doesn't want to be outdone. Both visited Naypyidaw and Yangon, promising help to Myanmar after President Thein Sein's quasi-democratic change in government.
Myanmar, known for hundreds of years as Burma, is a country very rich in oil and natural gas, which...
Along much of the new 793-kilometre natural gas pipeline linking western China to the Bay of Bengal lie dozens of new schools and clinics. The facilities, built with more than US$20 million in Chinese development aid, are evidence of Beijing's new approach to Myanmar.
Facing a Myanmese public increasing sceptical of its huge demands for natural resources, Beijing went out of its way to present itself as a friendly neighbour before gas started flowing through the pipeline last week.
Xinhua...
The United Nations is being forced out of billionaire Robert Kuok’s Traders Hotel in Yangon next month amid a tourism boom in Myanmar after housing various offices in five floors of the property since 2007.
The UN signed its last lease for the hotel owned by Kuok’s Shangri-La Asia Ltd. in August 2012 for a final year, said Aye Win, a Yangon-based spokesman for the agency. A 10th of its 2,000 employees in the country are still in the hotel, he said.
“Prices for hotel rooms are...
Myanmar’s tourism is on a roller coaster, accelerating in response to two years of government reforms according to Hotels and Tourism Minister, Htay Aung.
Talking to local media, earlier this week, he said Myanmar’s tourism sector was opening up to foreign investment and competition, but the challenge was to manage and develop infrastructure to maintain momentum.
Foreign tourists should reach 1.8 million by the end of the year with longer holiday stays, he explained.
“Tourism in...
EU re-opens its market to Myanmar/Burma
As of 19 July, Myanmar/Burma is set to benefit once again from a special, advantageous trade arrangement with the EU after the country's recent efforts to improve the political, social and labour environments there. The EU will bring the country back under the so-called 'Everything But Arms' preferential trade regime which will grant duty-free and quota-free access to the European market for all products except for arms and ammunitions.
The trade...
BEIJING (AP) — China has switched on a pipeline bringing natural gas from Burma, a state company said Monday, in a project that has raised concerns in Burma’s nascent civil society about whether its giant neighbor’s resource grabs will benefit local people.
The 793-kilometer (493-mile) pipeline connects the Bay of Bengal with southwest China’s Yunnan province and is expected to transfer 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China annually, according to a news release on the...
